NEA, Origin, Benchmark among winners in early April IPOs: VCJ

At least a half-dozen venture-backed offerings made their debuts last week, delivering a few outstanding returns to early backers and large stakeholders.

The active first week in April follows a busy quarter for IPOs as U.S.-based VC-backed companies held 36 offerings in the first three months of the year, more than any quarter for at least five years, according to the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of VCJ and peHUB).

The biggest IPO during the first week in April came on Friday, when online restaurant delivery service GrubHub made its splashy entry, with shares soaring more than 30% in first-day trading.

The Chicago-based company ended the day with a market capitalization of about $2.5 billion, which, on paper, stands to deliver some enormous returns to early backers. The highest multiple return award likely goes to Origin Ventures, which backed GrubHub’s first three rounds out of its $47 million $15.5 million Fund II, and held on to a 5% stake. At its current value of $125 million, that stake ought to be enough to return the fund several times over.

Other large holders of GrubHub include Benchmark Capital, a mid-stage investor in the company, with 8%, and Spectrum Equity, a later stage investor, with 11%.

The next-biggest IPO of the week was Friday’s offering from Opower. The Arlington, Va.-based provider of software for the utility industry saw shares climb 20% in first-day trading, closing the day with a market value just shy of $1 billion. New Enterprise Associates is the company’s largest venture shareholder, with a 19% stake, followed by MHS Capital Partners (7%), Accel Partners (5%) and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (5%).

In addition to GrubHub and Opower, four other venture-backed companies went public last week: Five9, a call center software provider, Tarena International, a China-based adult education provider, The Rubicon Project, a developer of tools for buying and selling advertising, and Corium International, a developer of drug delivery patches.

Photo of GrubHub CEO Matt Maloney (center) after ringing the opening bell before the company’s IPO on the floor of the NYSE on April 4, 2014. Shares of the U.S. online food-delivery service rose as much as 57% in its market debut as investors scrambled for a piece of the fast-growing consumer Internet company. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Story has been corrected to state that Origin Fund II is a $15.5 million fund, not a $47 million fund as previously reported.